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There was no reason to expect it would work. Quite the contrary. The original Star Trek series had limped into cancellation almost 20 years before. And though its subsequent success in syndication had generated a similarly successful series of movies, these too were well into serious decline.

The notion of reinventing the franchise with an all-new cast was generally considered sheer folly. Particularly with an austere and balding Shakespearean actor at the helm, instead of the dynamically histrionic William Shatner.

No one was more skeptical than Patrick Stewart, the usurping captain himself.

“I really didn’t want this job,” recalls Stewart, now more appropriately addressed as Sir. “I was very clear about what to expect. Star Trek: The Next Generation was going to be an utter failure and I would be on my way back to England within a few months. I could make some money for the first time in my life, get a suntan and go home.

“That’s the way it seemed to me and the way it seemed to a lot of people I consulted. I was reassured by everyone that I really shouldn’t worry about signing a six-year contract, as the project was doomed.”

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Everyone was wrong. And now, 25 years later, Star Trek: The Next Generation has become Star Trek: The Third Generation, embraced by the grandchildren of its original fans.

To mark the occasion, Stewart and the entire STNG ensemble have embarked on a limited convention tour, which brings them to the Toronto ComiCon this weekend at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Back in 1987, the new show’s unlikely impact was immediate, as Stewart found out the morning after its debut.

“I got a call from (the supervising producer) the late Robert Justman, who was initially responsible for getting me involved in this; he had seen me working at UCLA. He said to me, ‘You’re a hit.’ And I said, ‘How do you know?’ And he said, ‘Let me put it to you this way: more people saw you act last night than have seen you in total in your entire career,’ which at that point was 27 years.”

A sobering revelation and one he was not at all prepared for. It took an entire season for him to adjust to the rigours of weekly TV production and to come to terms with what he considered at the time to be the lax professionalism of his peers. “Those guys taught me that you can do good work and have a good time at the same time,” he now happily concedes. “Before that, I had always thought the two were unconnected completely. But they’re not, and it is something that has really changed my work and really changed the way I look at things.”

The jokey camaraderie that permeated the Next Generation set proved to be infectious. “That turned out to be the best part of all of this,” Stewart says. “We were very blessed. This is a truly remarkable group, terrific talents and also very lovely people.”

That mutual admiration and affection has survived over the years, and across great distance.

“I rarely see them now that I’m based in the U.K.,” Stewart laments. “I miss these guys and connect with them whenever I can. These (convention) events are a really pleasant way of doing that.”

It is also an opportunity to connect with the fans who, contrary to cliché, are not all obsessed losers who live in their parents’ basements and only come out once a year to don homemade costumes, collect autographs and buy expensive memorabilia.

“Some of your colleagues have given them bad press and it’s quite unfair,” Stewart scolds. “I mean, I see why they do it. There is an extreme element at times. But I talk with physicists and astronauts, presidents of universities . . . I mean, good lord, even two chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and at least one Secretary of State. . . who have said, ‘Your show meant everything to me and made a big difference to my life.’

“You never know who’s watching the work that you do. We learned through Frank Sinatra’s wife’s hairdresser that Frank never missed a single episode.”

Its far-reaching fandom alone has set Star Trek, in all its incarnations, apart.

“I think it is not hyperbole to say this, but there has been no show like it,” Stewart says. “To have reinvented itself again and again, and found such success again and again . . . and now, with J.J. Abrams and the new guys, it’s happened all over again.

“To have been a part of that for a while feels very good. I’ve often been quoted as saying, and I’ll say it again, if the world were to end tonight and all I was remembered for was this show, I would be content with that.”

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